Overnight flooding Sunday in Leavenworth County meant a short night for the county’s emergency management director.

Chuck Magaha said he went to bed about 1:30 a.m. Monday only to get up and get back to work by 4 a.m. Within three hours, he and county officials had closed several roads because of high water along the flooded Stranger Creek, which bisects Leavenworth County from north to south.

Before noon, Magaha’s bosses – the Leavenworth County Commission – had issued a state of emergency declaration for the county.

But Magaha said late Monday afternoon that he hoped the worst was in the past.

“I think we’re headed down the right track now,” he said.

The day brought continued flooding in the town of Easton in the northwest portion of the county. Magaha said the county’s water rescue service rescued one family from its home there. Some residents in Easton, which was hit by flooding in 2005 when Stranger Creek spilled over its banks, had voluntarily evacuated their homes.

The only other water rescue of the day in the county occurred Monday morning, when a mother and her daughter drove through standing water on Kansas Highway 92.

“The car got up on a bridge that was engulfed by water,” Magaha said.

A Kansas Department of Transportation worker was able to drive his road grader to the spot and get the mother and daughter to safe ground, Magaha said.

Early Monday, these roads had been closed: Leavenworth County Roads 8, 10, 14, 15, 16, 21, 23 and 28; Lecompton Road; Donahoo Road; 187th Street and Leavenworth Road; and Roe Road just north of Easton.

County Road 5 – Tonganoxie Road, which leads from Leavenworth to Tonganoxie – closed at 5 p.m.

Two creeks that run through Lansing are high, but Magaha said he didn’t think rainwater would be as much of an issue there. He did express concern about possible leakage into the Lansing Correctional Facility, though.